


What We Wanted

by okemmelie



Series: What We Did [1]
Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: Gen, and this is canon compliant i guess, graphic depictions of violence bc you know, people die in this show, rip to hatchetfield citizens but im different
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:21:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 6,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22084816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/okemmelie/pseuds/okemmelie
Summary: A meteor touches down in Hatchetfield. It promises the citizens of the small town to give them what they want, so long as they join in
Series: What We Did [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1955686
Comments: 66
Kudos: 33





	1. Sam

**Author's Note:**

> uhhh just a dumb concept that i've been thinking about for a while!!! inspired by mr. davidson saying "we're happy now. we got what we wanted" as well as various posts on tumblr dot com

“No way, you got ‘em? I never miss a musical at the Starlight and if anyone thinks that makes me less of a man, they can talk to my fucking gun!” He takes out said gun and it seems to excite Zoey.

There’s something inherently arousing about sneaking around with someone who isn’t his wife and Sam enjoys every single second of it. He wants to tell himself that Zoey is special, but he ends up just telling her instead as he fucks her in the backseat of his squad car.

When they’re done, they start the drive towards the Starlight and instead of thinking about Zoey, Sam thinks about himself. Is this what he wants? To spend his afternoons screwing around with girls in their early twenties and ignoring his responsibilities as husband? Then he puts his hand on Zoey’s thigh and stops thinking.

One thing he doesn’t have to think about whether he wants to go to the Starlight. He does. Sam loves musicals and at least Zoey does too, so maybe she is a little special. Mamma Mia! is going to be good, he just knows it. All he wants is to watch this musical and forget about his own moral struggles, if only for a few hours.

They arrive early and Sam goes to open the car door for Zoey. It’s raining and thundering, so they go inside quickly and get seated. Sam isn’t always an early bird, but for a musical he’ll do anything.

There’s still a long while until the show’s supposed to start and not an awful lot of people have made their way into the theater quite yet, but those who have all look around in confusion as the sounds from the weather outside is muted by a much louder sound.

Something crashes through the roof and Zoey grabs his hand.


	2. Greenpeace Girl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anyway i love greenpeace girl and i need it to be known

Sometimes, her job is infuriating. She wants nothing more than to make a positive change in this world, but so many people just don’t get it! It doesn’t mean that she isn’t going to continue trying to make a change, but dammit! She’s allowed to be passionate and she is allowed to be upset.

And then this guy comes along and he’s wearing a suit and he for sure looks like someone who can spare some money, just a little bit. It’s for the planet! But he doesn’t want to and he’s filled with excuses and what’s worse. Lies.

_ What a fucking idiot _ , she thinks as he tells her he gives his money directly to the people who needs it and walks away. But then the homeless guy who she so often speaks to asks for money and the guy says no and she just can’t shut up.

“Wow, you’re a real humanitarian.” She’s raising her voice because he deserves to be yelled after in her opinion.

He turns around. “And you come on a little strong with that whole ‘save the planet’-bit. As if I’m going to do that single handedly.”

“Well, you know what–” She’s ready to argue with him, to tell him that just a little effort from his side is way better than no effort at all, that he can make a difference if he just stops being a little bitch, but she’s cut off by the weather of all things.

It’s acting up very suddenly and loud noises come from the sky. The man points to something. “What is... that?”

She doesn’t know and he doesn’t either, but it’s suddenly raining heavily and the man takes off. It’s whatever. She wishes she could make a difference in this world. Change it for the better and make sure humanity didn’t fuck up the planet, but it’s just so hard when it feels like she’s the only one fighting. Small town Hatchetfield really isn’t the best place in the world to passionately care about the environment, huh?

So she walks home in the rain and on the way, she passes the Starlight Theater and it doesn’t look good. Cars are pulling up to have a look and driving away again soon after, not wanting to take part of what’s going on.

Something is calling her from inside the theater. She doesn’t know what it is, but she does hear its song and its promise of a better world. If she joins them, the world will be better. If she joins them, she can actually make a change. If she joins them, she can make others listen. She can save the planet.

And she can’t say no to that, so she walks into the ruins of the once proud theater and she looks around for the source of what is calling her. A girl she’s seen around town, the employee of Beanie’s, the local coffee shop, walks up to her. There’s a smile on the girl’s face and a broken piece of chair in her hand. Then, there’s a broken piece of chair in her own abdomen.


	3. Charlotte

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> charlotte is baby

They’re not listening to her. She keeps telling them that they need to get Sam to a hospital, because they  _ do _ need to get Sam to a hospital. His head is open! And she bet he’s hurting real bad.

But no one is hearing what she’s saying and those who are, are telling her she’s wrong. She’s not wrong. She loves Sam and Sam’s not doing well, so they need to get him to a doctor and they need to fix him and they need to make sure he comes back, because she loves him and she can’t have him dying. She wants to be with him and Sam being dead would really complicate that, so he can’t be. She refuses.

They take her somewhere. Luckily, they take Sam too. The drive is long, far too long. Paul’s not driving nearly fast enough and Charlotte tells him, but Ted shushes on her. It’s like none of them are taking the issue seriously and she wishes they would.

The professor yells a lot and Charlotte tries to listen. Ted thinks they should have left Sam in the alley and Charlotte tells him he’s a monster.

“No, he’s a monster!” Ted gestures towards Sam and he’s wrong, Charlotte just knows it. Sure, they’ve had their differences lately and Sam hasn’t been the same Sam as she once knew, but that doesn’t make him a monster! And this whole singing and dancing thing… Well, it’s still her Sam, so he’s not a monster! She knows it.

She wants him to wake up so badly, she wants him to be with her. She wants him, she wants him to love her. She doesn’t want the world to end and end her life in a loveless marriage, because that would hurt too much. She needs Sam to wake up and she needs Sam to love her.

Most people leave her and Sam alone, but not Ted. Ted stays and Ted’s a distraction. He tries to chat her up and while fucking him doesn’t sound bad, she can’t want that. So she talks about the world ending.

“Well, if I’m gonna die, I’m gonna go out doing the thing I love.” Ted pauses and Charlotte feels her breath get caught in her throat. Her? Does he love her? “Screwing around with another man’s wife.”

Of course not. They don’t love each other. She thinks for a moment when they’re making out that maybe she wants Ted, but that’s stupid of her.

She wants Sam. She wants Sam and she needs to say it out loud, because it’ll be more real if she does. “If I can’t be a wife to him now, what kind of woman am I?”

“I don’t know, Charlotte, I’m not your therapist!” Ted’s yelling and he’s pulling away from her and she thinks that maybe, just maybe, she went to far. “You know, maybe you should go back to fucking him, hm?” He points to Sam, her Sam. “I know that’s why you actually went to counselling.”

It’s not the only reason, she tells herself. She tells him too. She loves Sam, even if he’s a shitty husband, even if he makes her heart ache. She loves Sam and she’s not going to ‘upgrade’ to Ted, because it’s Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam she loves.

And so, Ted leaves and she wants him to stay, but she doesn’t want to follow him. Because following him has implications and she can’t be implicating things. She can only love Sam and hope he loves her too.

She doesn’t know what to do, so she prays to God and asks him to bring back her Sam. And God is merciful, because her Sam wakes up. But God is cruel, because he’s singing. And sure, his song is catchy, but she knows it shouldn’t be.

Or maybe she doesn’t. Sam’s the love of her life and all she’s wanted for the past few years is for him to love her again. And sure, he’s singing, but he wants her. What more can she ask? It’s the sweetest song and it’s all for her and Sam loves her. He can continue loving her. Forever.

“Now I’m gonna free up your heart, baby.”

He calls her baby and he hasn’t in a while and she’s so weak. For him. For her Sam. She is his and he is hers. “Yes, take me Sam.”

And he does. He takes his hand and he plunges it into her stomach.


	4. Alice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lets go lesbians!

Her dad lets Deb tag along to the show, but then they get there and the theater’s been hit by a meteor. And yeah, it’s unfortunate. She would have loved to see Mamma Mia! with her dad  _ and  _ with Deb, but she’ll survive. They still go out to eat and it’s so incredibly awkward and she just wishes her dad would at least try to like Deb.

She tells him this in the morning before getting on the bus to Clyvesdale. But maybe she just doesn’t tell him in the nicest way possible, but it’s his own fault for telling her to try dating someone else. “You just don’t like Deb!”

It makes her dad sigh. “Why don’t you try dating someone like Grace Chastity?”

“No!” Grace Chastity is a nerdy prude and she would never date someone like her, not even if her dad begged her. She yells some more stuff at him, stuff that she regrets, but he yells back so it’s not like it’s only her fault.

The bus ride is painful, because she’s sad and she misses Deb. She ends up getting off before she reaches the bridge and she makes a run for Hatchetfield High. All she wants is to be with Deb, is for Deb to hug her and for Deb to tell her everything is going to be alright.

For some reason, the school is much more quiet than she thinks a school like it would be. There’s no one in the hallways and all the classrooms she dares look into seems to be empty.

It makes her nervous, but she’s confident in herself. She can find Deb, she just needs to keep looking. When it doesn’t seem to work, she calls her girlfriend. “Deb! I’m at Hatchetfield High and I need to talk to you. Where are you?”

Deb informs her that she’ll be there soon and tells Alice to just stay put. She does.

Unfortunately for Alice, it doesn’t seem to be  _ her  _ girlfriend who shows up. Sure, the thing that shows up is shaped like Deb and she’ll go as far as to say it sounds like her, but it’s singing. And sure, Deb likes musicals, but she hates singing.

Maybe it shouldn’t scare her, but it does. Because Deb’s not acting herself and what Alice needs is for Deb to act herself. So she makes a run for it and she turns a corner, only to see a young boy get his throat ripped out by one of Deb’s friends she’s met. Ethan?

Either way, it doesn’t matter. She’s scared and clearly in danger, so she runs into the nearest room and locks the door. It seems to be a choir room, but it doesn’t matter. She hides and tries to calm her breath.

There’s someone banging on the door and Alice opts for hiding in a closet rather than in the open room. Then she calls her dad.

He doesn’t listen. Not to her feelings, not to anything but the fact that she’s scared. And he promises to come get her which is nice, but she’s not sure that it’s enough. She wishes he would take her seriously, that he would listen to her feelings and that he wouldn’t just dismiss all the things that were going on inside her.

Then the door breaks down and it’s noisy and scary and Alice goes back to just wishing her dad was there.

Some time pass and Alice tries to stay quiet, but it’s hard. It’s so hard. The door to the closet opens and she’s there. Deb. Or… not Deb. It’s Deb, but she’s singing and she’s not herself.

Her song is sweet and Alice can’t help but to listen, because Deb comforts her and says everything is going to be alright. It’s not her fault things are rough. Divorces are hard and she’s not supposed to be the one who fixes things.

Deb’s right, she thinks. This  _ is _ all her dad’s fault. She kisses Deb and Deb kisses her back. Deb’s hand strokes her hair and it’s comforting. Then Deb proceeds to choke her and it’s not nearly as comforting, but at least she can stop worrying. At least she can make her dad listen.


	5. Bill

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> f

They’re at the professor’s place and they should be safe. Well, should be. If Ted doesn’t end up killing them. He’s drunk and acting irresponsible and Bill doesn’t like it. He doesn’t like anything about this.

At least the professor’s working on something. He tries to tell himself that that’s a good thing, even though the whole alien theory still sounds a bit silly to him.

He can’t believe that this is the life he has to live. All he wants is to reconnect with his daughter, but now he has to fight for his very survival? That’s not fair.

Although, now that he thinks about it, maybe the professor’s right. Maybe they are really aliens and maybe he’s completely right about what’s happening, because suddenly Charlotte’s husband is back on his feet after his brains fell out and Charlotte? Well, she’s singing and dancing with her guts hanging out.

It’s terrifying and he thinks he’s going to die without a chance to say goodbye to his daughter, but it doesn’t happen. He’s saved by a gunshot and then another. The professor reenters with a gun and shoots both Charlotte and her husband.

Then he makes them sing. Bill doesn’t know the song, but somehow that’s a good sign.

He gets a phone call. It’s from his daughter. It’s from Alice. “I’ve never been more happy in my life your mother left me and moved you to Clyvesdale,” he tells her. Then she tells her the most heartbreaking thing he’s ever heard. She got off. To go see Deb. Goddammit! He tells her to run and hide and she tells him she’s scared.

“Everything’s going to be fine,” he says.

“Dad? I love you.”

“I love you too.” And with that, he hangs up. He’s not going to let his daughter die, he’s going to make sure she’s safe, he’s going to get her back and he’s going to be a better dad once he does.

The others try to give him directions. Well, not Ted. Ted’s an asshole, but he supposes not even the end of the world can change that about his coworker. He refuses to listen to  _ what  _ Ted is saying, because of course he’s going to get his daughter back! It’s the only option.

He should have been a better dad. He should have been a much better dad. He tells this to Paul and while he does notice that the other doesn’t seem to listen, he doesn’t care. He needs to let it out because he’s scared and because he needs someone to know that he cares about his daughter, dammit!

In the middle of his rant, he realizes something. “Oh my god, Paul, I’m the reason they trapped her. It’s my fault.”

Paul tells him to listen to him and then that it  _ isn’t  _ his fault. But Paul is wrong, because a second later Alice steps through the door. “Yes it is.”

“Alice?”

His daughter steps closer. “It’s all your fault. That’s the last thought I had before they broke down the door.”

She’s singing. His daughter is singing and every word burns hotter than his worst nightmares of Hell. It is his fault, she’s right, but that doesn’t mean he’s not here for her now. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t want the best for her.

In fact, that’s the only thing he wants. He wants to take her home and he wants to be a better father. The best father, in fact. “Alice, whatever I said before, I’m sorry.” She continues singing and it continues to hurt. “You can break out of it, I know you can!”

But she continues singing. She sings about him, leaving her. And he needs her to know that he didn’t, that he’d never, that he’s never going to again. So when Paul tells him they need to leave, Bill tells him to back off. “We’re not leaving without Alice.”

“That’s not your daughter, Bill.”

But it is. And she’s hurting. And he’s hurting too. He’s hurting real bad and he can’t live in a world without her. He can’t live knowing that he’s the reason they got to her. So he takes the gun, the one the professor gave them, and he goes to end it all.

Only… Paul doesn’t let him.

Paul’s telling him to look at him and he’s saying all these words, but Bill isn’t listening. He can’t. All he can do is think about Alice. About how much he loves her. About how he wishes he could have been a better dad. About how all he wants is to have his daughter back and h–


	6. Hidgens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i just want to give a BIG shout out to ANYONE who's ever tried writing hidgens because boi!

Something about the end of the world had always seemed scary to him and Hidgens didn’t like being scared. He liked being prepared. So when he first theorized the world ending in song, he got started.

Now, it was finally here. The apocalypse. And one of his students decides that it’s a good idea for her to bring one of those…  _ things _ to his house.

Maybe he can make a difference, he thinks to himself as he picks up some blue slimy stuff from the thing’s open head. _ Blue shit _ , as Emma calls it. He is a biologist and not a performer, after all, so he can examine it, he can  _ try _ . He can save the world.

It’s not what he wants, though, he realizes while alone in his lab. He wants to be a performer, he wants to live his long gone – but never let go of – dream, his musical theater dream. And that blue shit, whatever it is, is telling him it’s not impossible.

He shouldn’t listen, but he’s a man of science and he knows right when he sees it. Not only can he finally live his musical theater dreams, he can also save the world. All he needs is to let it spread to the mainland. All he needs is to let it continue it’s natural path.

So he sedates Emma and Ted, it’s not a big deal at all. He ties them together and he tells them his plans. They’re not listening, but they’ll see. Eventually they’ll see.

He’s always wanted to be part of something bigger than himself and as he performs the song he’s been working on for the two, he thinks that he might soon get there. Because Greg and Stu get there and he finally feels included, finally feels like he  _ belongs _ .

And they’re there with their arms around him and he feels wanted, he feels listened to, he’s been singing for an audience for the first time in  _ years  _ and it feels so good, so validating.

And so he asks them to make him one of them, because he’ll finally be part of making the world a better place, of reuniting all in a common purpose. And dying for a good cause can impossible hurt, right?

Wrong.


	7. Ted

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> baby

Ted knows what he wants and Ted knows he can’t have it. He’s always known he can’t. Or maybe not always. Maybe there was a time long ago where he did think he had a shot with her, but now? He doesn’t kid himself.

Like, sure, he still fucks her and he still tries, because he’s a weak man with a weak heart and he’s selfish and she’s selfish too. So she’ll have him when she’s lonely and he’ll think that maybe, just maybe, this means he has a shot with her. Maybe he does kid himself. But at least he’s real about it.

But then the end of the fucking world comes around and Ted watches her as she willingly throws her life on the line for Sam. And not even for the real Sam, for some scary, singing version of him who  _ definitely  _ do not deserve it. She’s reckless and willing to die for him and it makes Ted sick in the heart.

It’s scary. The singing is scary and Ted puts an end to it, because he might be scared, but he’s reckless and willing for her. And then Charlotte doesn’t even thank him for saving her life. She doesn’t even notice him and  _ God _ , he wishes she would.

He gets over it and moves past it and goes to do something nice for her, tries to cheer her up in these trying times, but she has the nerve to make it about Sam. Sam, who tried to kill them moments earley. Sam, who’s a horrible cheating husband. Sam, who Ted is sick of hearing about.

“You know what, Charlotte? I’m done, alright?” He tells her. He tells her because he’s awfully selfish. “So you can stay here with your dying marriage and your dying husband.”

He throws her the keys to Sam’s handcuffs and tells her he’s going to go hit on that barista Paul brought along for the ride, but that’s not quite true. Instead, he goes directly for a bottle of whiskey.

Because sure, he might be selfish, but he’s not stupid. And he knows that Charlotte’s stupid, but not selfish. So maybe if he drinks, he’ll forget that he’s an awful person who gave Charlotte the keys to her own death, just because she didn’t want to be with him.

He knows what’s coming and he knows that it’s his fault. That doesn’t make it hurt any less when he’s standing there, face to face with his dead not-girlfriend.

They get him on the ground and all he wants is to just die already. He doesn’t, though. The professor shoots Sam and then Charlotte, and it seems to get them for good.

Ted’s not optimistic about this whole plan Bill’s coming up with, because it sounds stupid. It sounds like walking right into certain death, because he knows that when faced with loved ones, people tend to make stupid decisions. And since he has no loved ones left, he can’t make stupid decisions. Bill, however? Bill’s gonna die if he goes after Alice.

But Bill just yells at him and Erica does too, so who fucking cares anymore? It’s not his family. Bill can do whatever the fuck he wants. Ted just grabs another bottle of alcohol and lets his two remaining coworkers leave.

The professor asks him what’s bothering him and Ted tells him. It’s his fault Charlotte dies. He should have never given her the keys. He should have never left her in there with Sam. The professor tells him not to worry about it. It’s not his fault. Emotions just get in the way sometimes. That sounds stupid, Ted tells him, and then he doesn’t remember more.

Not until he wakes up tied to a chair anyway.

And yes, maybe Ted finds the professor’s song catchy, but he also finds it terrifying. Especially when two musical zombies join in. But Paul saves them and it gives him just a little bit of willingness to keep going.

Maybe he should stay behind and help Paul, but he doesn’t want to die like that. He doesn’t want to die, being ripped apart by aliens near a crazy professor’s crazy house.

So he runs. He runs until he runs into the military. And he lies and tells them he’s the only one who survived. He lies to them as he’s lied to himself and– they shoot him.

A man walks over to him and Ted doesn’t want it to end like this. He wants a win, dammit! Not another loss. Something about the call from the weird zombie alien things tells him that joining them  _ is  _ a win. He’s already lost so much today. He takes it.


	8. Paul

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> rip to paul but no one in this fic is different. anyway the whole "paul can't die until he realizes that what he wants is emma" concept? brilliant. shoutout to whoever first came up with it!

Sometimes, being Paul is strange. He tries to lead a rather peaceful life with not too many surprises, as he doesn’t really like surprises all that much. He likes routine and he likes sticking to routine.

But then this barista comes along and she’s cute and pretty and Paul thinks to himself, sure. Why not just change his routine a little bit? So he starts going to Beanie’s rather than Starbucks, even though Starbucks is closer. He tells himself and his coworkers that it’s for the message of it all: He doesn’t want to give his money to some corporate chain. He knows it’s for the barista.

Then he learns her name and his life changes completely. And not just his life. The entire world changes around him as he watches nameless people on the street turn into weird singing creatures and it makes him  _ very  _ uncomfortable, because Paul only dislikes change in routine but he absolutely hate musicals and this is just a little too close to that.

His boss acts strange too, he sings and Paul doesn’t like it. He’s asking Paul what he wants and Paul has no answer. He’s never really thought about it, because he’s always been content just being content. Maybe he wants money, a partner, kids someday… but there’s no confidence in it, because he truly doesn’t know. He just wants to get out of there, but that’s hardly motivation. That’s just instinct.

So he flees. And he goes get Emma, as he’s learned the barista’s called. And after a minor hiccup at the singing coffee shop, they’re off to find somewhere safe to hide.

He tries to ask her out but it doesn’t really work. It’s a bad time. He can’t really blame her for thinking that, as they are on the run from singing actual murderers.

Shit goes down. Charlotte from work dies and tries to kill them, but Emma’s biology professor kills her and her husband, possibly again. And then Bill’s daughter calls. And she’s in trouble.

Emma warns him, tells him to avoid dying and turning into one of those singing things. Now, Paul has never really known  _ what  _ he wants, but he knows what he doesn’t want. He tells her that he’ll  _ never  _ be in a fucking musical and then he’s off.

He doesn’t manage to save Bill’s daughter and he doesn’t manage to save Bill either, but he does manage to survive as a small army unit scares away the singing alien things. They knock him out and he wakes up somewhere that definitely isn’t Hatchetfield High.

A man from an organization PEIP talks to him about some strange stuff like love and the strength of the human heart and it’s all a lot to take in. Sure, he could just read the little book the man, McNamara, offers him. He just doesn’t feel like he has time. Also, he doesn’t want to.

McNamara is a strange man, but he does help Paul realize one thing. He isn’t completely goalless. There is one thing he desires: Emma. He wants to keep her safe, he wants her to survive and yeah, he wants to go out with her, but not before this is all over.

So he goes back and he saves her  _ and  _ horrible, terrible, no-good coworker Ted, but then Ted leaves him to get eaten or whatever. Emma stays. It fills him with joy. And he survives. They both do. Ted doesn’t and neither does McNamara.

They get on a chopper and they get in the air and Emma yells about how she’s not going to die in Hatchetfield and Paul looks at her in admiration as well as fright. He reminds her to put on a seatbelt, because it’s a little bumpy and he doesn’t want her to die before he’s had a chance with her.

Unfortunately for both of them, it’s Zoey who’s piloting the chopper. Zoey who’s Emma’s coworker. Zoey who shoots and who lets the chopper crash.

He wants to kiss Emma, he really does, but she coughs up blood and then he kind of doesn’t. Not forever! Of course not forever. But for now. He leaves her alone and hopes for the best as he sets out to save the world so he can get the girl and get her for real.

“We got what we wanted.” Mr. Davidson says. “We’re happy now.”

“No!” Paul doesn’t believe it. He doesn’t believe any of it. “Mr. Davidson didn’t want to become a mindless alien slave. He wanted to be choked by his wife. While he jerked off!”

He’s going to put an end to all this and he’s going to do it now, but they start singing before he has the chance. And they ask him what he wants and the answer’s so clear, because he’s never truly been happy, but maybe with them he could be. Maybe he could finally let go of all his worries, of all his pain, and be with them. Maybe they could give him Emma too?

No! He has to say no to himself too, even though he can feel the process of whatever these aliens do come over him. He doesn’t want to spend his life singing and dancing. He wants to spend his life happy. He wants to save the world and he wants to be with Emma.

So he forces himself to pull through and he pulls the pin. He barely has time to register the explosion before he stops thinking entirely.


	9. Emma

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> rip

“Okay! Emma!” She has never seen Paul this intense before, but he sure is going off right there in the coffee shop. “I think the world is becoming… a musical.”

He looks scared. Far more scared than any sane person should be, she thinks to herself at that point. It’s something she soon regrets, as her coworkers continue singing and dancing after their planned routine is over. Well. That’s not exactly the scary part. The scary part is the fact that they murder the men waiting around in the coffee shop and that the men then come back alive. That shit’s truly scary, holy fuck.

“We need to run, Emma. Don’t hold back, just run.” And so, they run. They run and they run and they reconnect with his friends from work and then they run some more, because singing cops show up and  _ fuck _ , this really ain’t good.

They need somewhere to go, somewhere safe, and Emma figures out a plan. A good one, she thinks: They can go to her biology professor, professor Hidgens! His whole house is like a panic is like a panic room and they could go there.

And they do, but it’s not before they have a chance to sit down and grab a drink that it dawns on her. They’re going to die, probably. Much like everyone else they’ve encountered today, they’re going to die and they’re going to join in on this whole singing musical nightmare. And worst of all? They’re going to die in Hatchetfield.

She sits down with Paul and tells him about her worries. “Man, my whole life, my one goal was to avoid dying in Hatchetfield and… here we are.”

“Hey. It could be worse. You could be dying in Clyvesdale.”

She appreciates his little joke and even throws in a  _ ‘Fuck Clyvesdale!’ _ , because seriously? Fuck ‘em. But really, she’d rather die there. She’s not about to give up on her one goal in life, the one thing she’s always wanted. Is wanting to avoid something the same as wanting something? She doesn’t know and she doesn’t care. She just knows that she’s  _ not  _ dying in Hatchetfield.

Some people, however, are. First it’s Charlotte. She comes out with her husband, singing and trying to pull that Ted guy down with her. Then it’s professor Hidgens – or probably that guy Paul went to Hatchetfield High with to get his daughter back, considering that Paul returns before Hidgens dies.

Then it’s Ted, but he has it coming in Emma’s opinion. If he’s going to be an abandoning, backstabbing bitch he can die for all she cares.

She thinks it’s them next when they sit in the chopper and watch as Zoey aims her gun at them, but they survive. They survive the crash too, but it fucks Emma’s leg up real bad and she hates it. She hates it, because they’re not off the island. They’re still in Hatchetfield.

It dawns on her once more that maybe she’ll actually die here. For a moment, she’d gotten her hopes up. She had thought they could make it out of town, but they were not that lucky. And now she couldn’t walk. She would die here.

But they have to try their best, she decides, so she shares what she knows with Paul. And he’s willing to try, he’s willing to attempt saving the world – even if it means losing himself in the process.

Maybe it’s his stupid sense of bravery, maybe it’s his selflessness throughout the day and his compassion for the people around him without being a fucking asshole about it, maybe it’s their shared trauma or maybe it’s just because his awkward way of flirting with her has finally won her over, but she asks for a kiss.

And she almost gets it. Only almost, because then she spits up blood and kind of ruins the moment. She tells him to get back on in here and he tells her no thanks, face and shirt covered in her blood.

“Yeah, you’re right, fuck it. Get outta here.” She says.

“Okay byeeeeeeee.” And she’s alone.

Her leg doesn’t stop hurting, but she does manage to crawl her way to the bridge. And yes, it’s up for the season, but it’s better than nothing. It’s far away from downtown, it’s far away from… well, town. From all of it.

She manages to catch the attention of an aircraft in the early morning hours. She manages to get off the island, to make it out of there. She manages to get hospitalized by a military unit called peep or some shit.

Her leg gets better. She gets better. She didn’t die in fucking Hatchetfield, a town filled with bad memories of when she was nothing but Jane’s shitty older sister with no plans, no future and no present.

But unfortunately for Emma, dying  _ is  _ inevitable and she finds out while in the arms of the man she once called Paul. He starts singing and at first, she wants to believe it’s a joke. But it’s not a joke and they’re joined by people she saw in Hatchetfield as well as people from the hospital and people from peep.

There’s too many of them and they’re clapping and bowing and smiling scarily, making her feel unsettled. She thinks she can make a run for it, but then not-Paul reaches for her, grabs her by the wrist and doesn’t let go as the others swarm her.

She looks into his eyes, desperate to reach something in them that she hopes is still there. His humanity, perhaps? She fights and she fights and in a last effort, she pulls him in for a kiss. But love doesn’t save her. And wouldn’t it be strange if a vague, poetic term such as ‘love’ could stop an alien from plunging its hand into her chest and pulling out her heart?


End file.
